I have a 2009 Cayenne Turbo (not S). I bought it a little over a year ago. Quite happy with it, on the whole. It now has a bit over 70,000 miles. I spend a lot of time in Denver. Of course, there is nothing like altitude to take away your power. Has anyone done a tune? There are multiple versions. According to my Baltimore mechanic, "tune 1" is around $1200 and adds around 50 hp and also increases torque (I have forgotten to what). "Tune 2" is still faster, but requires replacing the exhaust system. I suspect tune 1 would meet my needs, but could be persuaded into tune 2. Any suggestions? How much would a tune shorten the life of the engine?

 

If you have a turbo, a ‘tune’ isn’t worth it even if done at no cost 😆. Turbos have those things called waste gates and should do well at elevation. YMMV but I wouldn’t go there.

 

If you're leaving the intake and exhaust stock, then I say don't bother. If you're going to make the car breath better (less restrictive intake and performance exhaust) then, yes, you'll see a decent bump in performance from a tune.

My car is an 09 Turbo S with the following mods and is much faster and more responsive than it was when stock. HP is estimated at around 650.

• HHR open air intake with hydrophobic pre filters
• ipd Intake Plenum
• Enlarged all aluminum FVD Intercoolers
• Fabspeed Secondary cat bypass pipes
• Evolution Motorsports billet Diverter Valves
• cargraphic Touring Muffler
• Maxspeed Stainless Exhaust tips
• Fabspeed Stage 2 Tune

 

Many thanks, Petza. How has your engine and transmission held up since the upgrade? Do you think it will shorten the life of either meaningfully?

 

No problems at all so far, but this vehicle is our family vacation car for the most part, so it has only seen 10,000 miles in the 2 years since it was completed. I also installed an aluminum 1 piece driveshaft to eliminate the issue of the cardan shaft support and bearing under the increased load of the larger wheels (22x12), tires (315/30), and power being sent to them.

Will it shorten the life, I don't know, but at 5,000 miles / year, with 40,000 miles on the car currently, that's a lot of years even before I make it to 100k miles when I'd expect to start replacing things.

 

I have a little over 70,000 miles on mine. I don't drive it a ton, maybe 10,000 miles per year. Mostly use it on weekends and on trips (just drove it to Denver because flying seemed too risky). I suspect I will pull the trigger on the upgrade.

 

I have a 2005 Cayenne Turbo that I bought from original owner at approx. 60k miles and it now has over 120k. It has been GIAC tuned since day one as the original owner had it chipped by Porsche dealer. Never had any issue and it pulls really hard.

I also have a 2014 Cayenne Turbo S that I bought from original owner at 44k miles that I had local Porsche dealer install a GIAC tune and it now has 53k miles on it. Driven it about a year with the tune. This one was a big step up in power and its awesome.

 

Thanks! Good to hear.

 

I have about 35k (106k miles total) on the Softronic tune that brings me to just over 600HP on my 2009 CTTS. No issues whatsoever and it accelerates like an F16 and is an absolute monster on the open road as well as twisty mountain roads.

Keep in mind that historically Porsche has been conservative and overbuilds and deliberately kept boost low on its turbocharged engines. This has been changing however, in the past decade as the newer cars with Sport Chrono can do periods of overboost with a push of a button.

 

Haha ... awesome!

Yeah Turbo S are like blackbirds... a high speed / long vector type of instrument.

 

Again many thanks for the great feedback. For those that redid the exhaust, how much noise did it make the Cayenne?

 

That should have been noisier...

 

My exhaust is exactly the way I want it. From inside the car it's only noisy when you're really hammeting it, but perfectly quiet when running 80-90 down the highway, unless you downshift and punch it to pass someone. From outside the car it's loud. More than once I've started it up and someone said "I didn't expect an SUV to sound like that - WOW".

 

Update if you do go with a tune. I am in denver with the same model. I keep thinking about the tune, just haven't pulled the trigger. I keep holding onto the money and/or putting it towards necessary maintenance instead of "luxury" upgrades.